Study finds Obama's Race to the Top program too costly for schools (with document)

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. - The implementation of President Barack Obama's Race to the Top initiative in New York state is an expensive venture that may move public education in the state backward, according to SUNY New Paltz's Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach.

"Without substantive validation of the common core, New York and U.S. taxpayers are funding a grand and costly experiment that has the potential to take public education in the wrong direction at a time when we need to be more competitive than ever before," wrote Ken Mitchell, the superintendent of the South Orangetown school district in Rockland County, who authored the essay.

To get $696.65 million in Race to the Top funding over five years, state officials agreed to wide-ranging education reforms. Among the reforms are an overhauled teacher evaluation system that ties test scores to teacher ratings and allows for teachers rated as "ineffective" over time to be dismissed; a new common core curriculum that aims to give students college and career readiness skills; data-driven instruction; a new academic intervention process to help struggling students before they fail instead of providing remediation afterward; and increasing the number of charter schools from 200 to 460.

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Over the next four years, Mitchell argued, 700 state public and charter schools will share $87 million per year, or $38 per pupil on average, but in his county, he said, six superintendents project the cost will approach $400 per student as districts cope with the state's new property tax cap.

Local costs taken on by districts, Mitchell predicted, will include paying professionals to develop new curricula, assessments, and procedures; buy or lease computer software and hardware; training teachers and administrators in Race to the Top initiatives; and responding to lawsuits likely to be initiated when teachers and administrators are dismissed based on evaluations.

In the current school year, Mitchell said, local expenses to implement new required measures in 18 Lower Hudson Valley school districts cost $5.95 million more than grants received, resulting in increased class sizes, deferred maintenance, and cuts to non-mandated programs, which have put programs like art, music, school libraries, and after-school activities on the chopping block.